Various activities, such as contact sports, and in particular the sport of football, require the use of helmets to attempt to protect participants from injury to their heads due to impact forces that may be sustained during such activities. Various types of helmets have been in use in the sport of football, ever since individuals began wearing helmets to attempt to protect their heads many years ago. Typically, these helmets have included: an outer shell, generally made of an appropriate plastic material, having the requisite strength and durability characteristics to enable them to be used in the sport of football; some type of shock absorbing liner within the shell; a face guard; and a chin protector, or chin strap, that fits snugly about the chin of the wear of the helmet, in order to secure the helmet to the wearer's head, as are all known in the art.
Over the years, various improvements have been made to the various components of a football helmet; however, in general, the overall configuration and shape of a football helmet, has remained the same for many years. In this regard, a typical football helmet has included an ear flap as a part of the shell forming the helmet, and the ear flap generally overlies an ear of the wearer and a portion of a cheek of the wearer; however, the jaw of the wearer typically extends outwardly beyond the outer periphery of the helmet, whereby a majority portion of the jaw of the wearer has only been protected by the chin protector.
In general, conventional football helmets presently have ear flaps and the lower portions thereof taper inwardly toward the neck and rearmost portions of the player's jawbone overlied by the ear flaps. As a consequence of this structure, when a player removes his, or her, helmet, it is necessary to pull the sides, or ear flaps, of the helmet outwardly so that the helmet may clear the player's ears. Further in this regard, conventional helmets may also include pads adjacent the player's ear and these pads generally are located along the lower and front edge of the ear flap. These pads must also be pulled away from the ears of the player when removing a conventional helmet. The repeated putting on, and taking off, a football helmet may cause irritation to the player's ear. It would be desirable if the putting on, and removal of, a football helmet did not cause repeated sliding frictional contact with a player's ears, to prevent potential irritation to the player's ear.
Conventional football helmets utilize face guards which are generally made of either a metallic or thermoplastic material. Since a player wears a helmet for a considerable period of time during practices and games, it would be desirable to minimize the weight of the helmet, while not sacrificing protection. The face guards of conventional helmets are typically attached to the sides of the helmet, as well as upon the front of the helmet. Thus, the face guard must extend rearwardly in order to be attached to the side of the helmet. It would be desirable if the size of the face guard could be reduced, thereby reducing the weight of the face guard used in the helmet.
While it is the desire and goal that a football helmet, and other types of protective helmets, prevent injuries from occurring, it should be noted that as to the helmet of the present invention, as well as prior art helmets, due to the nature of the sport of football in particular, no protective equipment or helmet can completely, totally prevent injuries to those individuals playing the sport of football. It should be further noted that no protective equipment can completely prevent injuries to a player, if the football player uses his football helmet in an improper manner, such as to butt, ram, or spear an opposing player, which is in violation of the rules of football. Improper use of a helmet to butt, ram, or spear an opposing player can result in severe head and/or neck injuries, paralysis, or death to the football player, as well as possible injury to the football player's opponent. No football helmet, or protective helmet, such as that of the present invention, can prevent head, chin, or neck injuries a football player might receive while participating in the sport of football. The helmet of the present invention is believed to offer protection to football players, but it is believed that no helmet can, or will ever, totally and completely prevent head injuries to football players.
The football helmet of the present invention, when compared to previously proposed conventional football helmets, has the advantages of: being designed to attempt to protect a wearer of the helmet from injuries caused upon an impact force striking the helmet; preventing irritation to a player's ear; affording more protection to the jaw of the wearer; and providing for the use of a lighter weight face guard.